Floods and mudslides in Java - December 28, 2007
Seasonal flooding has hit Indonesia hard again, for the fifth year running. More than 120 are feared dead and thousands have been left homeless after floods and landslides hit near the Bengawan Solo river, about 500 km from Jakarta, Java. The BBC has a slideshow of the destruction.
Such events are not uncommon in Java. "The main trigger is ecological destruction caused by deforestation, forest conversions and chaotic spatial planning," Chalid Muhammad, director of Indonesia's leading environmental group Walhi, told Reuters.
Whether it’s worth pouring money into reforestation to mitigate the damage of flooding has proven controversial in the past, but recent work has pinned down evidence that native forests do reduce the frequency and severity of floods in developing nations (Nature; subscription needed).
One extremist islamic cleric has blamed the disaster on the sins of the people, according to AFP and other sources.